Olive could not stop smiling. If she could have been any happier she was sure she would explode. Despite what she had hoped, and how much she really liked Enoch, she hadn't let herself be so hopeful as to expect that Enoch O'Connor of all people would actually like her back. He hadn't said so in so few words, nor had she expected him to, but she didn't need to hear it anymore.

It had been her first kiss and she would have bet any money that it was Enoch's too, which would have surprised no one. It was slightly awkward, but warm and soft and so unexpectedly gentle that she felt light headed and Olive found herself subconsciously going to touch her lips every so often for the rest of the day. It felt right. Granted, she had nothing to compare it to but still.

It sounded awfully silly, but she might have just found out what it would be like to swoon.

He had smiled too. Or at least, the closest thing to a smile she had ever seen from Enoch, and he'd actually taken her number when she offered it. He could pretend he didn't care as much as he liked now, although Olive hoped he didn't, she knew that he did.

"Well somebody's especially cheery tonight. What's gotten into you, Olive?"

"Huh?" Olive jumped slightly and the plate she'd been washing slipped out of her fingers and back into the dishwater with a splatter of bubbles before she could hand it to her mother to dry. Olive hadn't stopped smiling all evening. More animated than ever after the afternoon that had passed. "Oh! Nothing...I just...made a new friend today."

She was being perfectly transparent, she was sure of it, and her cheeks felt they were turning a fresh shade of pink as she tried not to think about Enoch for five minutes and then her message tone sounded from her pocket and she jumped a mile. She couldn't help the excitement, a testament to her optimistic nature, that bubbled up inside that it might even be Enoch after all and it must have shown on her face before a moment later her mother laughed and Olive could feel the knowing stare.

"Oh right, of course. It wouldn't be a boy would it?"

"N-No! I mean..." Olive wrinkled her nose slightly and wiped soap suds from her hands as she held out the last plate. "Can I be excused? Am I finished for now?"

"Homework, right?"

"Right!" Olive dried her hands hurriedly on a tea towel and scampered off. She tried not to look too keen, but the moment she left her mother's line of sight, she took the stairs two at a time to her room and bounced onto her bed.

A silly kind of excitement that Enoch would probably have been disgusted by, buzzed through Olive's arm accompanied by an overwhelming case of butterflies in her stomach as she pulled out her phone and clicked the button to wake the screen. But it wasn't an unfamiliar number that she had been, perhaps naively, expecting to see and Olive couldn't help a disappointed sigh when she saw Emma's name pop up instead.

Of course, Emma hadn't taken the bus home either, she hadn't had the chance to corner Olive and make sure she had spoken to Enoch like she promised.

Olive sighed and hopped off her lavender bedspread, leaving the message unopened for a moment. She tugged her hair out of the ponytail she had tied it up in to do the dishes and let it fall back around her face as she unlocked her phone to the stock picture background of fiery hearts. Should she tell Emma? Who was she kidding...she might even already know. Hugh had been on the oval while she was talking to Enoch. He'd probably seen. Much to her immense relief and partly out of fear for Hugh's life from Enoch, he hadn't interrupted again.

I did it.

No sooner had she sat down at her desk with her biology textbook open in front of her, her phone rang.

Emma.

"That was awfully quick." Olive smiled to herself as she answered to Emma's impatient scoffing on the other end.

"It only took me two whole hours to convince you to do it, yes I want to know the fruits of my efforts, Olive. He does, doesn't he?"

Olive's face turned red and she was especially thankful that it wasn't visible to Emma. How to be evasive about that?

"What makes you think Enoch would even say if he did?"

"Because it's yo-Julia! Put that back! ...sorry."

"Well he didn't say. Not in so many words."

"Shocking, from the man of few words. What did he say, and don't you try and get me to stop, Olive Elephanta, because you know I won't until you tell me."

Olive hesitated. Clearly for too long because she could practically hear Emma's triumphant grin over the phone.

"He so does! Oh my-Olive, you kissed him didn't you?"

"What are you? A fly on the wall? How on earth could you tell that!" Olive's voice came out a high, embarrassed squeak and her eyes bulged. How Emma somehow knew everything was beyond her. "Never mind, please don't say anything to him...he'll be so mad and it'll ruin ever-"

"Okay calm down, drama queen. I won't make a big deal...was it like kissing ice?"

Olive groaned and dropped her head onto the desk, trying to block out Emma's teasing as her best friend kept going.

"-ew, no, never mind. I don't want to know at all."

"It wasn't at all, thank you very much. He's...sweet when he wants to be."

"Didn't think Enoch and sweet went together but okay."

Then it did happen. Olive's message chime went off again and habitually she pulled her phone away from her ear in time to see the banner message pop up. It was not one of her contacts. Her heart pounded harder again and she couldn't help beaming to herself and reaching up to touch her lips again as they tingled pleasantly anew.

"Olive?"

Oh, right. She hurriedly put the phone back to her ear.

"Sorry, I should get on with my biology paper...I'll tell you tomorrow? Okay, bye!"

And before Emma could protest and call her bluff, Olive hung up and clicked into her messages.

It had to be Enoch. The whole message was only two words which was still one more word than she expected from him.

He could have written an entire speech for how happy it made Olive. The walls she had started to make substantial cracks in weren't resealing themselves right away. She was sure she had been right, at least a little, Enoch needed to let someone in whom could see past them and how happy she was that the someone was her.

xxxXxxx

The surprises kept coming when Olive rushed onto the bus the next morning. She had woken up late, for once, and barely had time to wolf down a piece of toast and rush down the street to the bus stop before she missed it.

The doors swung close behind her and she smiled habitually at the slate faced bus driver who despite the weather, she had never seen without sunglasses, and slipped into the aisle where Emma was waving her over to their usual seat.

Enoch was up the back as usual, his bag occupying any potentially free space beside him, and Olive's eyes automatically when to him as she stopped beside Emma. He wasn't looking at her, she wasn't even sure he knew she'd gotten on the bus at all, he was staring so vacantly out the window with his ear buds in and music probably turned up. She had just begun to wonder what he liked to listen to when the bus lurched and Emma yanked her down by her arm.

"Alright, I know you're smitten but don't zone out completely, will you?"

"I'm not smit-" Olive wrinkled her nose as Emma just raised an eyebrow at her, "Okay, fine." She pouted but actively tried to prevent herself looking back at him again. "But you can't blame me for being extra happy today."

"You're not going to be like Fiona and Hugh all over again are you?"

"Emma!" Olive hissed. She didn't think Enoch would fancy overhearing their conversation. "It's Enoch, he's nothing like Hugh, and besides, we're not...a...I don't know."

"Oh you're not? Right, because I was under the impressi-"

Emma's gaze shifted past Olive and the redhead watched a smirk appear on her face as the sentence changed halfway through, "-and don't look now but the Not Quite Heartless Tinman is staring."

Of course she did look. She was so eager to see if Enoch was pretending it had never happened or not that she didn't think twice about turning her head to look back at Enoch again. A minute ago he hadn't seemed to see her at all but Emma was right, he was looking at her.

She fully expected him to look right away again when he caught her eye but he didn't. At least not right away. Olive smiled at him and the butterflies started again in her stomach. Had she blinked at the wrong moment she would have missed it, but for just half a second she knew she saw his lips twitch back at her before the contact was lost and he looked away again.

Olive didn't have long to wait to see if anything had changed, however small.

Her first class was history with several of her friends, including Enoch, and Fiona who had apparently heard Hugh's distant version of what had happened and made it perfectly clear with subtle nudges and nods over at Enoch as they headed into the classroom.

Enoch had always sat in the same row as she and Fiona, a few vacant seats away from them and close enough for Olive to glance over curiously from time to time without being too obvious about it. Then when Jacob had transferred, he'd filled one of those free seats between Enoch and Olive, much to Enoch's obvious distaste.

This morning however, no sooner had Olive sat down then the chair next to her, normally filled by Jacob, was drawn out and Enoch sat himself down there instead.

Olive and Fiona both stared, each of them slightly confused, but Olive couldn't say she wasn't secretly beaming inside.

"Uh...Enoch?" Fiona asked and Enoch just arched one eyebrow at her coolly, daring her to question his movement. Before the Irish girl could, Jacob appeared in front of the desk looking every bit as confused as the rest of them.

"Is there a reason you're in my seat today?"

Olive cringed. She could see where this was going and her eyes were glued to Enoch as he turned his head slowly forward to look at the American boy. If the look he'd shot Fiona had been a challenge, the one he was giving Jacob was nothing short of a threat.

"Don't 'ave ya name on it. Fink I'll be sittin' 'ere."

"Enoch-" Olive nudged his elbow where it rested on the table, his fingers threaded together in front of his jaw but he didn't seem to pay any attention at first.

Jacob, to Olive's immense relief, clearly did not want to start another argument, at least for now not in class and, while Fiona shrugged at him sympathetically and Olive watched Enoch cautiously, he moved to another seat.

Enoch's mood seemed to lighten considerably, as much as it ever did, and he dropped his arms straight away.

"That wasn't very nice, Enoch." She didn't want to scold him, not now, but would it ever have made a difference anyway? She liked that Enoch wanted to fill the seat next to her himself, or he simply didn't want someone else too, even if his methods needed refining. She liked that the side of his foot was touching hers and he wasn't moving it away as quickly as it happened.

"I'm not very nice." He retorted as casually as anything as he flicked open a notebook so incredibly detailed with notes on the British Army that for a moment Olive was completely distracted by the fact he actually cared about a class that wasn't Biology. And speaking of Biology...

"You can be and you should be sometimes. It never hurt anyone."

"Ah, but why take the risk?"

Olive sighed and waved an apologetic hand to Jacob who had taken the vacant seat furthest from Enoch, a gesture to which Enoch scowled at. She dropped her hand and started to play with a red pen as they waited for Miss Wren.

"Enoch?"

He just grunted. He wasn't looking at her anymore, but down at the margins of his notebook where he was busy drawing a little rifle.

"Would...you don't have to but..."

His head shot up and suddenly he was looking at her again, his eyes blue as ever and looking slightly suspiciously at her. If he thought she was about to try and ask him out he would be immensely relieved that she wasn't Olive. Olive wasn't that naïve to think that asking Enoch O'Connor out in front of a class full of students, half of which thought of him as the butt of a mean joke, would be a good idea. Even if he had just kissed her. Besides, she was much too chicken to put it as a date.

"I was just struggling with the biology paper, would you help me with it?" She finished quickly and sucked her bottom lip into her mouth. She could have sworn his eyes followed it for a second but then they were back at her eyes and he was shrugging his shoulders.

"I guess."